What is Apple's "Project Titan" all about?

Apple is known for its iPhones, iPads, MacBook and the Apple watch. These are the popular brands that not only loyalists but even the layman knows about, what is not popular with Apple is its own car. Yes! Apple, few years, back was rumored to be working on a secret and confidential project called, “Project Titan”. This project was all about Apple creating its own Artificial Intelligent Car Driving System. Yes, this term is popular and known to be just a Tesla thing, but Apple CEO Tim Cook told Bloomberg in 2017:

The statement wasn’t clear about what Apple intended to do with building autonomous system, but he showed his interest towards it by saying that autonomous system of self-driving cars is the most challenging. We clearly know that Apple has been very successful in Siri (AI personal assistant), and it will continue to take part in future AI projects. It has also been reported that in July of this year Apple had obtained patent from California State Department of Motor Vehicle that they want 66 vehicle permits to drive and 111 safety drivers that will sit behind the steering wheel of the autonomous system driver testing for safety purpose.

Doug Field, the previous Vice President of Apple had come back to the company after working for Tesla on Tesla Model 3. This news made it more obvious that Apple might not just want to make a system that will be sold to other automakers but there are high chances that Apple might make its own Apple branded car. This seems more obvious because Apple on its own is an all service plus product company, that makes its own hardware and its own Operating System.

All the Apple loyalists and other tech followers hope to see such an Autonomous Driving System for Cars in the near future by Apple, because it will be a breakthrough in AI sector. As Tesla also has auto drive feature but it doesn’t meet complete autonomous system for driver as it notifies the driver to stay active and also to put their hands on steering wheel for confirmation that driver is consciously active or not. Only time will tell if Apple is successful in this quest.

Artificial Intelligent Artist

Old were the days when Artificial Intelligence was a Science-fiction. We have reached a point where there are AI functions everywhere from our banking sector, to the luxury of shopping and also in our Smartphones. The AI has been making our lives more comfortable and to be precise more productive by saving our time and increasing our efficiency. 

Now that is what a normal perception about AI has been considered everywhere but have you ever heard about an Artificial Intelligence artist? YES! A painter, an algorithm, a computer that by using the AI of algorithm that was based on the data of 15000 portraits between the  14^th and 20^th century has made a painting which was planned to be auctioned. 

To the surprise of its creator, the painting has been sold 45 times of its highest estimate, for a whooping amount of “$432,500”. To catch the interest of the collectors and to create authenticity of the painting the signature of the painter, which is an equation, is signed at the bottom.

  

But to what extent is the idea of these paintings by robots a feasible idea? I think to the extent to which it has raised money. But art once used to be a source of human interaction, of what they perceive and then put that perspective into the art for others to learn and mesmerize. From the old art cave carvings to Van Gogh starry nights and the famous “Mona Lisa” art has always been an exquisite domain. The future holds much in this technological era that even we can’t imagine.

Facebook to introduce “Unsend” feature in Messenger

Facebook planned to announce this “Unsend” feature earlier but now this feature has been introduced in some markets of Poland, Colombia and Bolivia on both iOS and Android and Facebook has promised to capture other markets too. Facebook messenger has allowed its users to remove their messages from the recipient’s inbox. Facebook is also planning to add an expiry date for a single message or the entire message thread so if users want their messages to be deleted after six months, they will be able to remove those messages.

The new “Unsend” feature will appear as an additional option at the bottom of the screen and people can use it with the help of a long press on the message that has been sent. After a long press on the message, users will have options of copy, forward or delete and the new option will be “remove”. By tapping on this option, users can delete the message either for themselves or for all the recipients.

Messages can only be removed after the first 10 minutes of delivery to correct any mistake or removing something which is accidentally pushed but “Remove for everyone” button will leave an indicator that the message was retracted and after 10 minutes, user will be able to remove the message, but the message will remain in the recipient’s inbox. Facebook will retain those deleted messages for some time to see the policy violations, if reported.

Facebook has empowered its users to remove any kind of message whether it’s a text or a group chat, a photo, video, a link or any other form of message within 10 minutes of sending but only your side of messages will be deleted from the conversation.